Shadowplay
by SilverGinkgo
Summary: *Set in GoW2* Delta squad not only has to deal with the ever growing threat of the Locust empire but with new recruit Benjamin Carmine; Anya Stroud ends up receiving a rookie as well a woman by the name of Atemis Hodgins *possible OC Baird romance*
1. Unyielding

**Author's note: **it's been awhile since I've done anything on this site, partially due to the fact my computer has been crashing routienly and school has been quite business; either way here is a Gears of War 2 story I have been meaning to put up for a little while.

Rate M: For strong language, blood and gore and possible sexual content

Enjoy!

* * *

The streets of Jacinto were bustling with armed soldiers; the atmosphere was tense and the air echoed with the sound of Derricks, Centaurs and King Ravens that flew through the sky with an ominous yet protective presence. Today was the day the new Gears arrived; the rookies or rooks and dozens of armored figures moved throughout the streets, both trainees and weathered soldiers.

A particularly well known COG stood near the center of the square accompanied by his colleague and closest friend. Sergeant Marcus Fenix scanned the roaring skies and frowned; his companion took notice of his friend's sour expression and gazed up to the sky in curiosity. After a few moments Dominique Santiago turned back to the armored soldier and opened his mouth, but before any words could be said the sound of blades cutting through air deafened any other attempt at sound. The men turned their heads to look behind them and saw the dark, battle scarred form of a massive King Raven. At the sight the two COGs turned around completely to face the helicopter fully; two familiar faces emerged from the belly of the steel beast and stepped off the whirling craft and began to walk over to their comrades.

"Yeah the Cole-trains back baby!" the unmistakable voice of Augustus Cole called over the roar of the chopper blades.

"Good to see ya again Cole…Baird." Marcus replied as Cole and Damon Baird joined them, and Cole gave both him and Dom a solid slap on the back.

"How've you two been doin'?" Dom asked with a friendly grin.

"Doin' great! Ready to kick some Locust ass!" the dark skinned soldier hollered over the sound of the King Raven which was now taking off.

"Heard you guys are getting a new recruit." Baird commented with a smug look spreading across his features.

Marcus and Dom looked at each other momentarily and then looked back over to the two other men.

"Well isn't that just fuckin' fantastic." Marcus said annoyance evident in his voice.

"Also heard Anya was getting a rook…or a transfer…or whatever." the blonde COG added and waited in quiet eagerness to see the look on the Sergeant's face at the news.

"What…who the hell is it?" Marcus asked remaining calm.

"I don' know, some guy called Artemis or something shitty like that…" came the reply.

The taller soldier was about to open his mouth again when the sound of another King Raven landing cut him off.

Once again another great steel beast landed not far in front of them but this time a petite figure stepped down off the bird.

Anya Stroud stood tall and brushed a stray piece of hair from her face and began to walk forward.

Much to the Gears surprise another woman stepped down off the helicopter and followed in suit behind the other female.

Once she stood before the four men Anya placed a hand on her hip and looked at them with a smug expression on her face. The other woman lingered a little behind the smug looking blonde with a very formal expression upon her features.

"I see you guys are having a little reunion." Anya stated with a smile.

"You could call it that…" Marcus replied and glanced at Anya and then to the woman behind her nodded his head in her direction. "Who's your friend?"

Anya turned to look at her companion and motioned for her to come forward.

"This is Artemis Hodgins, my new recruit or transfer if you will." The blonde explained.

"Pleasure to meet you all." she said.

The men smirked at each other then looked back to the two women.

"Little formal for us…" Marcus said still smirking.

"Don't worry I can take care of myself." she replied curtly.

Baird scoffed and the rest of the men continued to smirk.

"Uh…Sergeant Fenix?" a voice came from behind the group.

The men turned around to see an armed soldier stumbling towards them, a rookie; Marcus groaned softly at the sight.

"Sergeant Fenix, Benjamin Carmine at your service." The soldier said and attempted to salute but ended up dropping his duffle bag instead.

Anya walked up beside Marcus and smiled coyly.

"Time to train the rook?" she asked.

"Yeah, lucky me…" he replied in annoyance and motioned for Dom to follow; his companion groaned and followed after him on their way to train the Carmine.

Anya turned to see Artemis, Baird and Cole standing in silence and the blonde smiled.

"Scared of each other?" she teased and she heard Baird scoff.

"Yeah fuckin' right." He retorted and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Baird's just nervous 'cause he doesn't know how to handle a woman!" Cole exclaimed and laughed heartedly.

"Shut the hell up." the blonde soldier grunted in annoyance.

Anya chuckled and looked to Artemis.

"Why don't you get to know these two characters a little, you've got some time before Control expects us to be back."

The other female looked at her and then over to the two soldiers and shrugged.

"Why not…?" she replied.

"I'll radio you when it's time." Anya said and turned on her heel and began to walk off in the opposite direction.

There was a silent pause between the trio before Cole finally spoke up, unable to stand the awkward quietness.

"Augustus Cole, baby!" he exclaimed with a toothy grin and held out his hand which Artimus took and shook firmly.

"Artemis Hodgins." she replied.

"Damn! Girl's got grip!" Cole said and released her hand.

The woman then looked to the blonde who continued to say nothing until Cole nudged him sharply in the ribs with his elbow.

"Shit! That hurt! What was that for?" Baird hissed and glared at his companion.

"Aw, quit your whinen' and introduce yourself to the lady." came the reply and a chuckle.

He glared at Cole again who grinned back.

"Damon Baird…" he grumbled and looked over to Artimus.

"Pleasure." She replied and held out her hand though Baird didn't take it. "…Alright." she said and retracted her hand.

"Bairds just gotta stick up his ass today, don't mind him." Cole said to the woman and then gazed over to the blonde. "Come on Baird she ain't got cooties!"

"Fine!" the shorted soldier exclaimed and thrust out his hand which Artemis took hesitantly and shook firmly just as she did before with Cole.

"Hey you got the tour yet?" the large black man questioned as she released Baird's hand.

"Tour?" she asked.

"Yeah Cole, what tour?" Baird hissed.

"Hey don' want her gettin' lost now would ya?" came the reply.

"I really won't be out and about the city much, mostly just working at Control…" Artemis replied feeling slightly out of place with the two men.

Cole shrugged his massive shoulders and then slapped Baird on the back forcefully, but friendly.

"Well the Cole-trains' going to check out the Rig's and get ready to kick some ass, see you two later." the large dark skinned soldier then said and began to walk away.

Silence once again set in now that it was just the two of them.

Artemis cleared her throat.

"You're not to keen on me, are you?" she asked.

"I'm not to 'keen' on anybody, 'sides you're a rook don't expect to earn fuckin' respect as soon as you get here." he replied roughly.

"I'm not a rook, I transferred form an outpost stationed near Mount Kadar for your information." She retorted.

"Well sorry!" he hissed.

"Just because I haven't earned your respect doesn't mean you have to be rude." She hissed back.

Baird was about to open his mouth again when Artemis' comm. link crackled and she turned around, putting her back to him.

"Affirmative…" she said into the link and turned her head and glanced at the blonde. "Well it's been a ball, but I need to get back to control."

"Whatever…" he replied and turned on his heel and began to walk away.

She was about to do the same when a loud boom was heard not far in the distance and then gun fire rang out. She looked around wildly in confusion when another boom sounded off this time the ground shook violently and she fell to the ground from its force.

"Shit!" she heard Baird exclaim and then the sound of hurriedly moving footsteps reached her ears. Somebody grabbed her arm forcefully and hauled her up from the ground.

"Get, up we gotta move! Locusts are attacking!" he said roughly.

"W-what? I thought-" but he cut her off.

"I said move!"

She obeyed and allowed the blonde soldier to pull her along behind him, perhaps to their doom.


	2. Tranquilize

**Author note:** sorry I did not intend for this chapter to be so short; thank you to all that have reviewed as well as read this work in progress.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chaos rang throughout the streets, cries of terror and war echoed across the city.

Artemis looked around in confusion as she was dragged behind the blonde COG Baird.

"Come on! Hurry up!" Baird called out over the noise of chaos and terror, and turned down another street. "Shit!" he hissed when he spotted a horde of Locusts beginning to swarm out of an emergence hole that had just sprung up at the opposite end of the rubble filled street.

Upon seeing the danger ahead Artemis quickly pulled out a pistol and held it firmly in her small hands.

"You think that's gonna do anything?" he questioned dryly, eyeing the pistol in her hand.

"I'm not exactly a soldier as you are, and Control doesn't exactly give us heavy artillery." she retorted with a glare.

Baird was about to rebuke to her comment when a loud crack echoed out.

Artemis felt a sudden breeze go past the right side of her face and heard and eerie howling rush past her ear. Snipers; she had just come within a hairs width of having her brains blown out.

"Ah, fuck!" Baird hissed and grabbed the woman standing next to forcefully by the wrist and pulled her forward again.

Ahead of them he saw a rusted, broken down car and made a run for it, pulling Artemis along behind him. Once in the cover of the abandoned vehicle the blonde soldier hurriedly pulled out his sniper rifle, loaded in a round and cocked it. With a grunt he sprang up and anchored the rifle against the steel frame of the car door and peered through the scope, aiming at the exposed head of a Locust Cyclops. His finger tensed and pushed down on the trigger; he watched in disgusted pride as the Locust's head exploded in a mess of brain tissue and flesh. He watched the body slump forward, blood still spouting from the neck of the decapitated body, and he grimaced slightly before moving on to the next target.

An eerie screech suddenly filled the air, Baird cussed in annoyance and saw the hunched over, disfigured forms of a swarm of Wretches now charging towards them.

"Fuck!" he cursed and was about to switch weapons to take on the new threat when he heard a shot ring out from beside him, followed by a few more and he saw one of the Wretches fall. He glanced to his right and saw Artemis crouched down peering around the front of the car, pistol at the ready.

"Not exactly a marksman." he comment after it took her four more shots just to bring down another Wretch,

She scoffed and fumbled with her weapon in an attempt to reload it.

"Take the goddamned help; I'm not a soldier, but it appears that you need all the help you can get!" she hissed managing to finally reload her pistol.

Baird was slightly perturbed at the outburst but quickly went back to picking off the Locust horde.

Around twenty minutes later the horde seemed to be retreating and Baird stood up for his position behind the stranded car and watched in confusion. It puzzled him, the Locust never retreated, it wasn't their nature…but at least it got them out of his hair for the time being. Sighing in mild frustration he turned to see Artemis standing up, loading her last round into her pistol before dusting herself off. Her light grey eyes suddenly shifted upwards and he found himself gazing into the deep pools of stormy grey.

"It's not polite to stare." she chided with a glare.

"I wasn't staring, I was just making sure the Locust didn't cause to much damage…Jeez." he replied rolling his eyes.

"Such a gentleman…" she muttered.

There was an awkward pause in which Baird took the chance and stole a secretive glance back at the woman beside him, whom appeared to be in deep thought. He noticed how pale her skin was, not deathly pale, but pale none the less; a few strands of her blonde hair that had been previously pulled back into a neat bun had found their way out of their bindings and now fell around her face messily.

After a few more moments her was about to look away knowing that he might get caught staring again when he noticed something he hadn't before; a pair of pale pink scars marring her soft face. The first lay on the crest of her left eyebrow, cutting through the fine hairs of her brow, barely reaching three quarters of an inch. The second fell upon the left, scarring both her upper and lower lip, marring the slightly cracked pale pink flesh.

As he pondered the reasons for these minute but noticeable scars he made the mistake of letting his guard down.

"What the hell is your problem?" Artemis growled at him catching his stare.

He was slightly surprised but quickly recovered.

"What the hell is yours?" he spat back.

The blonde female opened her mouth to say something in return when Baird's comm. link crackled.

"What?!" he hissed into the link.

"Fuck, who shoved a stick up your ass?" Marcus' voice replied in annoyance.

"Never mind…What'd ya want?" Baird questioned trying to remain level headed, or at least sound like it.

"We need to get to the Rig's on the double…"

"Affirmative…" the blonde replied and closed the link.

Looking over to the Control transferee he sighed tiredly.

"Come on…lets go." he said and began walking down the street, stepping around the bloodied bodies of Locust, Wretches and the occasional debris.

Artemis rolled her eyes and followed after him.

* * *

The walk through the battle scarred streets of Jacinto remained fairly quiet with neither Baird nor Artemis attempting to carry on a conversation with one another. They weren't exactly on good terms with each other after all, but none the less Artemis was grateful to the COG soldier walking a few paces ahead of her. Of course she would never admit to it for it would, as she suspected would lead to an inflation of his already largely inflated ego; thus with this conclusion she sided with remaining silently grateful.

Not too far in the distance she could hear the Chairman giving a rousing speech to the soldiers about to go into battle and she could hear the cheering. She knew this meant that she and Baird would be parting ways soon, though she had a feeling that this would be the last she would be hearing from him…after all she might just have to save his sorry hide someday, but in truth she doubted that.

The COG soldier suddenly cleared his throat, catching the Corporal's attention, though they continued to walk towards their destination.

"Listen, I'm only gonna say this once…Thanks, I guess for the help back there…even though you shot like fuckin' shit…" he said gruffly not bothering to even look at her.

"You're welcome…thanks for saving my ass…" she replied slightly surprised on what she had just heard him say.

"Yeah…just don't look into it to much…you said you could take care of yourself."

Artemis nodded though she knew he could see it, she suspected that he knew she understood.

After that the walk continued on its previous course of silence until Baird spoke up once more.

"This is where we part ways." he said, still not bothering to look at her.

"Guess so…" she replied and heard the rumble of the Derricks and Centaurs moving out of the city on their way to war.

Without another word they parted ways, Baird heading towards the war machines and Artemis towards the square where the members of Control were and where Prescott was delivering his speech.

...The war had begun…


End file.
